sorted it, i just used php to match the id numbers for the javascript then echoed it to the browser

PHP Code:
<?php 
if (!empty($_POST[editmode]))
    {echo 
"<script language='javascript' type='text/javascript'>\n";
echo 
"function updatertes()\n{\n";
echo 
"var frm = document.frmedit;\n";
    
$articles mysql_query("select * from articles");
    for(
$t=0;$t<mysql_num_rows($articles);$t++)
        {
        
$chk "chk".mysql_result($articles,$t,"articleid");
        if (!empty(
$_POST[$chk])) 
        {
        
    
$ctrln "conceptRTEvalue".mysql_result($articles,$t,"articleid");
    
$txtn 'content'.mysql_result($articles,$t,"articleid");
    echo 
"updateRTE($txtn);\n";
    echo 
"frm.$ctrln.value = frm.$txtn.value;\n";

        }
        }
echo 
"}\n</script>";
    }
?>
thanks again senorbadger